tonight on "world news," a daughter is free. the american hiker in the arms of her mother. out of prison in iran and speaking, forced to leave her fiance and friend behind. and, that crisis on a new tape. the massive california gas explosion. what witnesses thought had happened. a cough syrup crackdown. dr. richard besser explores the way kids are using cough medicine to get high. and, what a special delivery. a baby girl, just born to one of the trapped miners in chile.

the name they gave her says so much. good evening. for for 410 days, a 32-year-old american woman was imprisoned in iran. a hiker charged as a spy while her mother, nora, waited and prayed. well, tonight, sarah shourd is coming home, free. amid questions about her health, and the fate of the young americans left behind. one of them, her fiance. our jim sciutto has traveled to iran eight times and he's been following the story from the start. jim? >> reporter: well, diane, her detention became a powerful symbol of the wider standoff between the u.s. and iran, and after several false starts and doubts up to the very last minute, she finally has her freedom. for sarah shourd, 14 months behind bars ended with a joyful

reunion with her mother. earlier, she left the tehran prison where she had been held in solitary con foinment for the spotlight and a fright to the persian gulf nation of oman. >> i'm very humbled, the more i learn about what people have done for me, what governments have done for me, the more i feel humbled. >> reporter: she was freed for health reasons after discovering a lump in her breast. but not until half a million dollars in bail was made, which officials insist did not come from the u.s. government. she's leaving behind josh fattal and shane bauer, who became her fiance in prison. shourd's mother said, i'm going to make sure she's going to get the attention and care she needs. i can only imagine how bittersweet her freedom must be. bittersweet for the other families, as well. we reached the fattals at home in philadelphia.

>> we profoundly share in the joy of the shourd family and we want nothing more than to have that for our families, as well. >> reporter: tonight, tehran's prosecutor offered little hope for the other two, saying they will not be tried for spying. a newsweek reporter, held in the same prison last year, said shourd herself will likely be leaving with her own chilling warning. >> they tell you what you should do, what you should say, what you shouldn't say. the revolutionary guards, they have agents all around the world, and they can always harm you. >> reporter: shourd is very aware they can also harm her two friends who now appear headed for a court run by iran's feared revolutionary guards. u.s. officials say, however, diane, that shourd will not be returning to iran for any trial. >> all right, jim sciutto, our thanks to you. and back here at home, the latest on that deadly natural gas explosion in california, which incinerated 40 houses.

tonight, new tape of that moment, and the harrowing moments after, from neal karlinsky. reporter: the moment of the blast captured on a gas station's surveillance camera shows such a large explosion, it's no wonder first responders thought it was a plane crash. >> there's a plane down. we're getting multiple responses started. >> it appears we have a plane down in the neighborhood. >> reporter: in call after call, there are two constants amidst the chaos that are a firefighter's nightmare -- the fire is burning unusually hot -- >> we're trying to get close. we have extreme heat. >> we've got major heat. we're starting to move people out of these homes right now. >> reporter: and all of the hydrants are dry. >> we have no water in this hydrant. we think we've got a broken water main down here. >> it's a sinking feeling. if there was ever a time when you needed the water, it was there. >> reporter: captain bill forester was one of the first to arrive. the fire was so big even

commercial airline pilots were calling it in. >> it was like you tipped a rocket upside down at the blastoff. probably 100-foot flame lengths. it sounded kind of like a jet engine. a high pitched screaming sound. >> reporter: some of the firefighters first thought it was a terrorist attack. most thought it was a plane crash. it would be a full 45 minutes before they realized exactly what was going on. >> it does not appear that this is an aircraft down. it appears this is some sort of natural gas explosion. >> reporter: chapel hill fire chief daniel jones says the sort of confusion faced in san bruno is normal, but on a massive scale. >> in major incidents like this, it's rare you have accurate information to start. when you arrive on-scene, you basically look to see what you have, and you make some assumptions. >> reporter: many of these men and women live in the community they were trying to save. a fact they say made a tough job worse. their fellow neighbors call them heroes, but near lir a week later, even these firefighters

are trying to come to grips with a disaster they never saw coming. neal karlinsky, abc news. and in politics tonight, 49 days before the november elections, the last big primary day is under way. voters are showing up in seven states and washington, d.c., going to the polls. and, we keep hearing republicans are motivated, democrats a lot less. jon karl toured the polls today to see what he found. >> reporter: in delaware today, a hotly contested senate primary is sending unprecedented numbers of republicans to the polls for a mid-term primary. >> the career politicians need to go for awhile and we need to bring in some fresh people. >> well, i don't think washington is in touch with the normal people. >> reporter: and big turnout today for republicans in new hampshire's primary. >> i want to bring america back to the way it was. >> greatest concern is the direction our country is going in in terms of political stances and spending. >> reporter: it's the trend, already nine states have seen

record-high republican turnout for mid-term primaries. democrats, meanwhile, have seen record-low turnout in 11 states. it's called the enthusiasm gap, and it's the reason democrats may lose control of congress. >> i think it is going to be very, very difficult in places where the republicans have plausible candidates for the democrats to mobilize in the way that they were able to mobilize in 2008. >> reporter: put simply, republicans are more fired up about voting than democrats. according to an american university study of primary races so far, 4 million more republicans have voted this year than democrats. that's an astounding number, because until now, democrats had voted in larger number s in evey mid-term election season since the 1930s. it's a dramatic change from two years ago, when barack obama was attracting large numbers of new voters looking for change. many of those voters are now staying home. the challenge for democrats is to try to recapture some of that

energy that got barack obama elected president. but it's not happening yet, diane, and there are only seven weeks left until election day. >> all right, jon, thank you. and we want to tell everyone about some disturbing new evidence tonight about one aspect of violent crime in america. as we told you last night, the fbi says violent crime dropped last year. the number of rapes down more than 2.5%. but today, a number of women came forward to say they are rape victims, but their police department simply looked the other way, in case after case. pierre thomas on the searing testimony. >> reporter: sara reedy's story is going to make you angry. in 2004, sara was sexually assaulted during a robbery at the pennsylvania gas station where she worked. >> he pulled a gun out on me. he ordered me to give him oral sex at gun point. >> reporter: did you think he might kill you? >> yes, i did. >> reporter: you still find

yourself crying? >> at times, yes. >> reporter: but when sara reported the crime to police, a detective accused her of lying about the assault and of robbing the gas station herself. >> within minutes, he began accusing me. >> reporter: he arrested you, right? >> yes. at times i feel it would have been easier to go through the assault than the false arrest. >> reporter: reedy told her story today at a congressional hearing examining whether the nation's police are failing to fully investigate sexual assaults against women. in recent years, some major police departments have reported such stunning declines in rapes, that the credibility of their numbers are now being questioned. in new orleans, a 37% decrease in rapes. in new york city, a 35.7% drop. and in baltimore, there has been an unbelievable 80% decline in rape since the early 1990s. it was all too good to be true. in baltimore, officers failed to even write reports and

investigate 60% of cases. >> we are seeing chronic patterns of police refusing to accept cases for investigation. >> reporter: as for sara, police discovered a serial rapist had been targeting women in her area. the charges against her were dropped. did you ever get an apology from the detective? >> never. >> reporter: pierre thomas, abc news, washington. and, now, we turn overseas to a reality check from the man in charge. the general now leading american men and women in afghanistan. nine years into the war, with 95,000 u.s. troops on the ground, general david petraeus sat down with our martha raddatz. and, in an exclusive interview, talked about the possibility the war will take years more to end. >> reporter: general david petraeus has visited dozens of combat outposts in his two plus months here. >> you interdict them with ground forces? >> reporter: every visit confirms how tough it is to make

progress in this increasingly bloody war. >> it's very difficult and sometimes seeming to be as slow as watching grass grow or paint dry. but nonetheless progress. >> reporter: there have been improvements in the afghan security forces, and petraeus says there have been a few places where the taliban has lost momentum. a few. >> our soldiers, your police and you will all be fighting shona by shona. >> reporter: this small outpost we visited is called jagahta. it has been hammered by the enemy so often the soldiers call it "jagahta get outta here." >> last month alone, we took 42 rockets, 16 mortars. >> reporter: in fact, while we were there, petraeus watched real-time video from an f-16 that was tracking a group of suspicious men, soldiers feared were about to attack the outpost. >> what we have sought to do is to provide realistic expectations. >> reporter: for all the talk

about beginning to withdraw forces next summer, almost everything we saw in our travels, and almost everything general petraeus told us, indicated success here will take a very long time. successful counterinsurgency campaigns can take nine or ten years. we've been in afghanistan nine years. >> it is just now that we have finally gotten the inputs right in afghanistan. >> reporter: so we're really near the beginning of that counterinsurgency clock? that success that could take nine to ten years. >> yeah, again, in some respects, i'd say obviously what took place up until this point has been of enormous importance, but it is just at this point that we feel that we do have the organizations that we learned in iraq and from history are necessary. >> reporter: meaning that thinning out of troops could still begin in july, but if the current strategy remains, a significant number of u.s. forces could be here well into the next decade. martha raddatz, abc news, lowgar

province, afghanistan. and still ahead on "world news," they call it robotripping. teenagers getting high on cough syrup. the vote today on whether cough medicine should be a prescription drug. and, the miners trapped for months, the special delivery giving them hope. at purina one, we want your dog to be as healthy as possible. so, we set out to discover the science in some of nature's best ingredients. we created purina one with smartblend. new, delicious shredded morsels and crunchy bites, with real meat, wholesome grains and antioxidants, for strong muscles, vital energy, a healthy immune system, and a real difference in your dog. purina one improved with smartblend. discover what one can do.

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just about every one of us has some of it in our medicine cabinet. we're talking about cough syrup. there has been concerns about teenagers taking large amounts of cough syrup to get high. robotripping, they call it. and it's been a growing problem. in fact, today, an fda panel considered whether cough medicine should be much harder to buy. here's dr. richard besser. >> reporter: they're all over youtube. videos that show teens engaging in what's called robotripping, or dexing. millions of teens are known to be abusing dxm, the active ingredient in many over the counter medicines. >> we have young people who are choosing to abuse medicines. that's the issue we've got to go after. >> reporter: for some, it's a cheap way to get high. in large doses, the drug can cause the sensation of being drunk. but there can be real consequences. dxm can be a gateway to other

drugs. can cause changes in drigs, difficulty breathing a phat heartbeat. and in rare instances, death. last year, more than 8,000 people, mostly teens, were sent to the emergency room. james hunt has been using dxm to get high since he us was 17. >> you don't think about drugs being on the counter at walmart. you just walk in anywhere, like, in any city in the country, and get drugs. >> reporter: still, today, an fda advisory committee voted to keep the cough medicines available without a description, in keeping with the industry group position. the industry says the key is to educate parents withed as like these. >> do my parents no? yeah right. i even get high in my room. >> they have no clue. >> reporter: the fda must still decide whether to accept today's recommendation of their panel to keep the medicines nop prescription. it is very likely they will. it will come down to parents preventing cough medicine abuse, not the federal government.

>> so, they will, at this point, at least, not make them a prescription drug? >> reporter: that's right. >> i want to ask you about something else, because there is news today on a report you first gave us here and all of our viewers heard about with everyone is osteoporosis drugs li and unusual broken bones. what is new? >> reporter: as we reported, some people on these drugs have broken their thigh bones by doing as little as stepping off the curb. have a look at these x-rays. it's serious. those are real breaks. following our reports, the fda sent out notices to doctors around the country. today, an expert panel reviewed all of the evidence, the most extensive review to date and concluded there is a link between using these drugs for long-term and these unusual breaks in the femur. they found that 94% of people who had these unusual breaks had been on this drug for an extensive period of time. so, they said this needs be taken seriously and issued recommendations. >> what is the recommendation?

>> reporter: there are several. first, labeling has to change, so that patients are aware. and second, doctors need to report better. there needs to be a reporting system so they can learn from this. it's important people understand, though, that these drugs prevent far more fractures than they cause. there are things you can do. if you've been on these drugs for more than five years, talk to your doctor, do you still need to stay on them? and if you have pain in your thigh, that can be a warning sign that your leg could be about to break. >> so, five years and pain in the thigh, and you can find more details about rich's original reporting on our website at abcnews.com/worldnews. and still ahead, is this any way to fly? the new airline seats, backing more people onto planes like this?

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and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted can get back to work. and our efforts aren't coming at tax-payer expense. i know people are wondering-- now that the well is capped, is bp gonna meet its commitments? i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right. nothing beats prevacid®24hr. just one pill helps keep you heartburn free for a full 24 hours. prevent the acid that causes frequent heartburn with prevacid®24hr, all day, all night. nothing works better. >> and now, this is not what airline passengers want to hear. introducing the sky rider. a stripped down seat that would let airlines pack more people onto planes. it's more like a saddle with arm

rests than a seat. rows would be just 23 inches apart, as opposed to the average of 32 inches now. it would allow some 737s to carry 220 people, that's 50 more than today. an equipment company is showing them at a strad show. they still need faa approval. and, we continue to watch with the forecasters, hurricane igor, very closely tonight. winds, 145 miles per hour. and that's category 4. it is heading toward bermuda, and, look at the images from space. an astronaut aboard the space station told us the storm is putting on quite a show. >> absolutely fantastic. the view. we could see the water right through the atlantic ocean, right down through the eye, and it was spectacular. and it really just takes your breath away. >> amazing, indeed. and, a voice of christmas has died. >> rudolph, with your nose so

bright -- won't you guide my sleigh tonight? >> it will be an honor, sir. >> reporter: how many kids have heard that over the years? billy may richards had the title role in "rudolph the red nosed reindeer." what better legacy can you leave than a show that everybody loves, she once said. billie mae richards was 89 years old. and still ahead, why those miners trapped for more than nine weeks had reason to celebrate today. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. you can talk to a real person 24/7.

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another healthful, flavorful beneful. and finally, so, what do you do when you're trapped 2,000 feet underground, no way out for months, and your wife goes into labor? jeffrey kofman, following the saga of those 33 trapped miners in chile, tells us they had reason to cheer. >> reporter: elizabeth was almost eight months pregnant when the mile collapsed, trapping her husband and 32 others. "i've been trying to remain calm," she said last week, "because it's not easy to be pregnant in a situation like this." families of most of the trapped miners can be found at what they

call camp hope outside the mine gates. but from deep in the mip, elizabeth's husband sent her a message. she should stay at home, he said, not in the camp, because she is pregnant. but it is hard for anyone to relax, knowing that a loved one is trapped half a mile ubdz ground. there have been other touching stories here. just ask christina. a few months ago, she declined her boyfriend's engamement. christina reconsidered. "he said, okay, my love," she tells me. "as soon as i get out of here, we're going to get married." as for the pregnant mother, she gave birth to a daughter as her husband waited in the mine. they were going to call their baby carolina. instead, esperanza. spanish for hope. jeffrey kofman, abc news, at the san jose mine, chile. >> welcome to esperanza. and we'll see you tomorrow night.